urchin
UK /ˈɜːtʃɪn/ · US /ˈɝt͡ʃɪn/ noun
Forms urchins urchon
- noun (archaic or dialectal) A hedgehog.
- noun (obsolete) A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.
- noun A mischievous child.
- noun A street urchin, a child who lives, or spends most of their time, in the streets.
- noun A sea urchin.
- noun One of a pair in a series of small card cylinders arranged around a carding drum; so called from its fancied resemblance to the hedgehog.
- noun (historical) A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.
Etymology
From Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog; sea urchin”), from Old Northern French irechon, from Vulgar Latin *ērīciōnem, from Latin ērīcius. Compare modern French hérisson, whence the English doublet herisson.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A hedgehog.
- noun A sea urchin. See Sea urchin.
- adjective Rough; pricking; piercing. [R.] "Helping all urchin blasts." Milton.
Etymology [OE. urchon, irchon, a hedgehog, OF. ireçon, eriçon, heri, herichon, F. hérisson, a derivative fr. L. ericius, from er a hedgehog, for her; akin to Gr. Herisson.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “urchin”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details